PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

'Miracle tree' substance produces clean drinking water inexpensively and sustainably

New American Chemical Society podcast

2012-03-01
(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, Feb. 29, 2012 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series describes how the seeds of the "miracle tree" can be used to produce clean drinking water.

The new water-treatment process requiring only tree seeds and sand could purify and clarify water inexpensively and sustainably in the developing world, where more than 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, scientists report.

Removing the disease-causing microbes and sediment from drinking water requires technology not always available in rural areas of developing countries. For an alternative approach, scientists looked to Moringa oleifera, also called the "miracle tree," a plant grown in equatorial regions for food, traditional medicine and biofuel. The research appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.

In the podcast, Stephanie B. Velegol, Ph.D., a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, explains that past research showed that a protein in Moringa seeds can clean water. One approach creates water that cannot be stored, and the other approach is too expensive and complicated. The researchers wanted to develop a simpler and less expensive way to harness the seeds' power.

To do that, they added an extract of the seed containing the positively charged Moringa protein (which binds to sediment and kills microbes) to negatively charged sand. The resulting "functionalized," or "f-sand," proved effective in capturing lab-grown E. coli and damaging their membranes. The f-sand was also able to remove sediment from water samples. The results open the possibility that f-sand can provide a simple, locally sustainable process for producing storable drinking water, Velegol says.

The new podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from www.acs.org/globalchallenges.

INFORMATION:

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions is a series of podcasts describing some of the 21st century's most daunting problems, and how cutting-edge research in chemistry matters in the quest for solutions. Global Challenges is the centerpiece in an alliance on sustainability between ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Global Challenges is a sweeping panorama of global challenges that includes dilemmas such as providing a hungry, thirsty world with ample supplies of safe food and clean water; developing alternatives to petroleum to fuel society; preserving the environment and assuring a sustainable future for our children and improving human health.

For more entertaining, informative science videos and podcasts from the ACS Office of Public Affairs, view Prized Science, Spellbound, Science Elements and Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Plug 'leaks,' create 'cradle to career' education system to meet world challenges: Top US educator

2012-03-01
Plugging major "leaks" of students exiting formal education prematurely is a top priority in all countries -- developed and developing alike -- to successfully address a suite of problems confronting humanity in decades to come, says a leading American educator. Addressing a Malaysian forum on entrepreneurial education, Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor of the State University of New York, noted the rate of kids completing education in her US state was little better than in the developing nation she was visiting. For every 100 New York kids entering high school, just 57 ...

When continents collide: A new twist to a 50 million-year-old tale

2012-03-01
ANN ARBOR, Mich. --- Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau. India and Eurasia continue to converge today, though at an ever-slowing pace. University of Michigan geomorphologist and geophysicist Marin Clark wanted to know when this motion will end and why. She conducted a study that led to surprising findings that could add a new wrinkle to the well-established theory of plate tectonics – the dominant, unifying theory of geology. "The exciting ...

Breast Lift Versus Breast Augmentation

2012-03-01
Women of all ages decide they want to undergo breast surgery to improve their profile or figure. Understanding that there are different kinds of breast surgery procedures that have their own unique benefits is important. Some women want to know how they can benefit from a breast lift versus breast augmentation. Knowing that a breast lift may benefit you more than breast augmentation can help you decide which procedure is best. Breast Lift Also known as mastopexy, a breast lift is better for women who are more concerned about sagging or drooping breasts than breast ...

First breakdown of public health data for Cleveland neighborhoods

2012-03-01
Today, the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods of Case Western Reserve University release new health data from Cleveland neighborhood groups on three of the most pressing public health concerns: obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. The three data briefs – statistical public health publications – group Cleveland neighborhoods and provide prevalence estimates for diabetes, hypertension awareness and obesity using five years of local survey data. Previously, these measures were only available for the city of Cleveland. "This data allow the local public ...

China's urbanization unlikely to lead to fast growth of middle class: UW geographer

2012-03-01
The number of people living in China's cities, which last year for the first time surpassed 50 percent of the national population, is considered a boon for the consumer goods market. That is based on the assumption that there will be more families with more disposable income when poor farmers from China's countryside move to cities and become middle-class industrial and office workers. But the assumption overlooks a policy from the era of Chinese leader Mao Zedong that restricts the upward mobility of its rural citizens, says a University of Washington geographer. This ...

A 2-pronged attack: Why loss of STAT1 is bad news

2012-03-01
The so-called signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are involved in the regulation of cell division but details of their functions remain a matter of conjecture. In the development of breast cancer, the role of STAT1 is particularly interesting as high levels of STAT1 activity are known to be correlated with a better prognosis for breast cancer patients. There is a considerable body of evidence that STAT1 can act to suppress tumour growth in breast cancer but how does it function? Important clues are provided by the latest results of Christine Schneckenleithner ...

Inherited epigenetics produced record fast evolution

Inherited epigenetics produced record fast evolution
2012-03-01
The domestication of chickens has given rise to rapid and extensive changes in genome function. A research team at Linköping University in Sweden has established that the changes are heritable, although they do not affect the DNA structure. Humans kept Red Junglefowl as livestock about 8000 years ago. Evolutionarily speaking, the sudden emergence of an enormous variety of domestic fowl of different colours, shapes and sizes has occurred in record time. The traditional Darwinian explanation is that over thousands of years, people have bred properties that have arisen through ...

Understanding Your Children's Changing Needs When Creating a Virginia Child Custody Agreement

2012-03-01
Child custody agreements are useful in helping parents define their roles as caretakers and reach compromises about raising their children, ensuring that children's needs are met and that they are consistently cared for to the satisfaction of both parents. When issues arise, child custody agreements can help parents resolve them. Virginia child custody and/or visitation agreements are tools in the parenting process and they do have limitations. Even with clearly defined agreements, parents can face challenges with co-parents as they balance their roles in their children's ...

Legal Protections Against Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace

2012-03-01
A business executive is passed over for an important assignment after she announces her pregnancy. A single mother is verbally harassed by co-workers about her pregnancy. A waitress is denied extra rest breaks medically needed to help keep her pregnancy-induced high blood pressure under control. An office worker is hired, but the employer changes its mind after finding out she is expecting. All of these situations constitute potentially illegal pregnancy discrimination under federal employment law, and under the discrimination laws of most states. Unfortunately, these ...

Young people face double penalty in a slow job market

2012-03-01
The latest official unemployment figures show that unemployment among young people has soared to 22.3 per cent, higher than the recession of the 1990s, while the overall unemployment rate is nine per cent. New research from Understanding Society, a study of more than 40,000 UK households, has examined what is driving this uneven employment pattern and finds that young people suffer from a 'double-penalty' in their attempts to find and keep a job. The rise in youth unemployment figures is due to young people being more likely than older workers to be laid off, thus swelling ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

Danforth Plant Science Center adds two new faculty members

Robotic eyes mimic human vision for superfast response to extreme lighting

Racial inequities and access to COVID-19 treatment

Residential segregation and lung cancer risk in African American adults

Scientists wipe out aggressive brain cancer tumors by targeting cellular ‘motors’

Capturability distinction analysis of continuous and pulsed guidance laws

CHEST expands Bridging Specialties Initiative to include NTM disease and bronchiectasis on World Bronchiectasis Day

Exposure to air pollution may cause heart damage

SwRI, UTSA selected by NASA to test electrolyzer technology aboard parabolic flight

Prebiotics might be a factor in preventing or treating issues caused by low brain GABA

Youngest in class at higher risk of mental health problems

American Heart Association announces new volunteer leaders for 2025-26

Gut microbiota analysis can help catch gestational diabetes

FAU’s Paulina DeVito awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Champions for change – Paid time off initiative just made clinical trials participation easier

Fentanyl detection through packaging

Prof. Eran Meshorer elected to EMBO for pioneering work in epigenetics

New 3D glacier visualizations provide insights into a hotter Earth

Creativity across disciplines

Consequences of low Antarctic sea ice

Hear here: How loudness and acoustic cues help us judge where a speaker is facing

A unique method of rare-earth recycling can strengthen the raw material independence of Europe and America

[Press-News.org] 'Miracle tree' substance produces clean drinking water inexpensively and sustainably
New American Chemical Society podcast